Review: Madea's Witness Protection
In their heyday, Eugene Levy and the satirically contemptuous gang at SCTV would have had a field day gutting formulaic mixed-message trafficker, Tyler Perry. Standout comedic supporting players gotta’ eat, too, but does Perry own compromising Polaroids of Levy with …
Review: Elena
Widowed Elena and her men — an indolent son and a gamy gamer of a grandson — look to her wealthy second husband to finance the younger boy’s way out of the army. From the well-appointed Moscow apartment in which …
Review: People Like Us
According to the terms of his estranged father’s will, Sam (Chris Pine) must deliver $150,000 in a shaving kit to Elizabeth Banks, the 30-year-old sister he didn’t know existed. Initially reluctant to hand over the cash to Dad’s hippie love …
Uggie's Fame Cemented at Grauman's Chinese
Scorsese's hand and footprints have yet to be immortalized in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Who needs Marty when the brilliance of Kobe Bryant (I've seen all his movies) and now Uggie, the pooch from The Artist, have been forever …
New Footage Unearthed of Channing Tatum Boning Up for Magic Mike Role
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/25/26792/ From the look of this video just released to TMZ, Channing Tatum has as much difficulty dancing to Y.M.C.A. as he does spelling it. Tatum's Magic Mike, in which he stars as an exotic dancer, opens this Friday at …
48 Hour Film Project Screenings Begin Tonight at UltraStar Poway
Armed with little more than three required elements (a TV newsperson named Gary or Gretta Greenberg, a cell phone, and the line "Where are we going?") and a two-day shooting schedule, the finished products in this year's 48 Hour Film …
Rape Victim Gives Adam Sandler's That's My Boy a Ringing Endorsement!
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/24/26738/ The same day Andrew Sarris -- the Dean of American Film Criticism -- passed, cinephiles were presented with a new exacting voice to consider: Vili Fualaau. For those of you who didn't pick up a newspaper in 1997, Fualaau …
Short Takes: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
The cuteness doesn’t stop at the title. An asteroid set to collide with earth brings together a freshly-dumped insurance salesman (Steve Carell), a man whose television beams nothing but exposition and clumsy non-sequiturs, and a free-spirited neighbor (Keira Knightley). Lorene …
Blogfight: Rock of Ages
My mind was set on skipping Rock of Ages altogether until Lickona brought out the bomb. He went so far as calling Julianne Hough and Tom Cruise a "plasticine nymphoid" and "ageless nostalgia bot," respectively. Then this headline caught my …
Review: Brave
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/21/26624/ With another wild-haired royal at the helm (and only one-tenth of Tangled’s wit, charm, and stereoscopic invention), Pixar’s latest amounts to little more than Rapunzel redux. What begins as a standard Disney fairy princess outing takes a turn for …
Review: Pink Ribbons, Inc. (And Alfred Hitchcock in Tactic)
Barbara Brenner, highly persuasive breast cancer activist, argues her disease is “the poster child of cross-marketing.” Léa Pool’s gutsy documentary calls into question what exactly the pink ribbon culture does to bring about change. (With billions raised, why have breast …
La Jolla Country Day & Moms With Issues™ Present Young Leaders Film Festival
For the most part, the only leaders one sees in movies nowadays are of the countdown variety. It's good to learn of a film festival aimed at 14 to 18-year-old students that encourages personal growth, social action, and positive change. …
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Will Charlize Theron Get Oscar's Call?
A second visit to Snow White and the Huntsman reminded me of the the remarkable similarity between the Queen's magic mirror and a certain Academy booby prize. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/18/26431/ Either this is the most flagrant bid for an Oscar in motion …
Review: That's My Boy
For years Adam Sandler has been threatening to remake several Jerry Lewis pictures. The closest he's come is borrowing the title of a 1951 Martin & Lewis picture for this insipid, deeply misogynistic excuse for a comedy. Doing a gravely-voiced, …
Happy Father's Day From Nemo and Marlin
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/17/26377/ How's that for a Father's Day double-feature? The animated Nemo and Marlin won't be back in theatres until September 14. I wouldn't be plugging the re-release of Finding Nemo -- or drooling over the thought of it being converted …
Review: Lola Versus
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/15/26302/ "Men are always looking for something better. Women settle for what they get." That's the war cry of freshly dumped Lola (Greta Gerwig), the 29-year-old New Yorker unceremoniously kicked to the curb by her dreamy but hopelessly hollow boyfriend …
Jerry Lewis Remains Hospitalized After Friars Club Collapse
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/14/26227/ It must have been all the farkakte Scientology in the air that caused show biz legend Jerry Lewis to collapse Tuesday evening. The mavelous 86-year-old filmmaker/funnyman/humanitarian/pussycat mush was rushed to the hospital after collapsing at his Manhattan hotel with …
San Diego Film Festival to Host Gus Van Sant Retrospective
The 11th San Diego Film Festival will host a Gus Van Sant tribute and retrospective this September with the director in attendance. Festival president Kevin Leap tells The Hollywood Reporter, "This is the first time he's had a film-festival retrospective." …
Son of Fare Thee Well: David Elliott
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/jun/13/26194/ Dave and I can (and have) argue taste and opinion until they unearth the missing reels from Greed. What he sees in red-baiting Orson Welles or clothes hanger Audrey Hepburn I'll never know. There isn't a finer writer of …
Journalist Overpowers Texting Theatre Patron With iPad
To paraphrase Norma Desmond, android phones are smart. It's the operators' brains that got smaller. The iPad proved mightier than the iPhone in an electronic battle to the finish in a Los Angeles movie theatre. iPad: Bringing a Gun to …